Sports

US Rowing Makes History And Wins First Men’s Four Gold Medal In 64 Years

#Paris Olympics
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US Rowing gold medalists in the men's four

Getty Image / Bertrand Guah / AFP


After 64 long years, Team USA Rowing has won a gold medal in the coxless Men’s Four. In sweeps rowing where each rower in the boat has one oar compared to sculling where each rower has two, the Men’s 4 event only takes a backseat to the men’s 8 in terms of prestige, this is one of the premiere events.

Somehow, despite US Rowing consistently being among the best-run programs in the world of rowing Team USA had not won a gold medal in the Men’s 4 since the Rome Olympic Games in 1960. That changed on Thursday morning when Liam Corrigan (6’5″, 205lbs, Harvards Physics and Astrophysics ’19), Michael Grady (6’5″, 200lbs, Cornell U.), Justin Best and Nick Mead (6’6″, 212lbs) crossed the finish line with a time of 5:49.03 and edged out New Zealand in 2nd (5:49.88) and Great Britain in 3rd (5:52.42).

@nbcolympics

This race had us on the edge of our seats watching Liam Corrigan, Michael Grady, Justin Best and Nick Mead win a HISTORIC gold medal for Team USA! 🔥 #ParisOlympics #olympics #paris2024 #gold #usa #rowing #goldmedal

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The US Rowing boat executed a flawless raceplan. They were able to keep the 2nd place finishers within sight throughout the race and respond with power sets anytime the New Zealanders tried to make a move. The Kiwis made a valiant push to try and catch Team USA in the final 225 meters but Uncle Sam’s finest simply would not roll over and accept the silver medal and instead kept their composure and make history.

64 years! That’s about 23,376 days since US Rowing stood atop the gold medal podium in the men’s four. It’s truly unfathomable that it has taken our country so long to get back to gold.

After the race, 26-year-old Justin Best from Pennsylvania told reporters “in high school, I wanted to see how far I could take this. I had in the back of my head the Olympics, and in the back further, I had gold medalist. After years and years of trials and tribulations, ups and downs, I can finally say that I’m on the top of the podium.”

Best was emotional after the gold medal, going on to say “it was a long-term goal. My long-term girlfriend, my first date, I told her, ‘Hey, I want to go to the Olympics and rowing’s very important to me, so if you want to go along with that, we can make this work. I’m just glad to be able to stand here today and show that dreams can be accomplished. You just have to put your mind to it. You have to have that willingness to go deep, well beyond anyone’s expectations of you.”

The Pennsylvania rower finished by telling reporters “crossing that finish line, I was just bawling my eyes out. Seeing the flag being raised, I love these guys, I love the United States of America, and I wouldn’t want to do it with another group.”

Justin Best (6’4″, 195lbs) is from Kennett Square, PA and rowed for Drexel in college. Nick Mead rowed for Princeton in college and his alma mater congratulated him on social media. Mead also spoke with reporters about how special this was:

So far, the gold medal in the men’s four is the only Paris Olympics medal for US Rowing but Friday will bring additional events.